BFirebird

Stole my thunder...I was just going to post maybe something happened to someone he knows or family member completely unrelated to baseball. There could be a lost in translation here both culturally and language-based.

Huh? This team is so hard to like....and it starts and ends with 2 people.

If you bat with guys on base and get out without driving anyone in you get a LOB. It doesn’t matter if there are 0 outs or 2 outs.

The closest one I can think of is when Bonds was intentionally walked with the bases loaded..walking in a run. And I can at least see some logic in that at the time.

Who knows. I see zero logic in it. Why even throw the first 3 pitches?

And they aren’t even mistakes. They are like mind-blowing game altering gaffes. Continually batting awful players at the top of the lineup, his stubbornness with handedness, continually putting Sousa in when just started a rally. It is endless. And they are things that other people are just dumbfounded by. Even Steve Stone of all people are questioning the moves. Enough is enough with this nonsense. Glad I am going on vacation away from this BS.

No doubt. Schilling would come up with some sort of conspiracy about the black players to try and keep them out.

Unfortunately it wouldn't probably be too far off from a lot of the league at that point in history. I just hope that guys like those 2 are the minority of thought among players.

I mean it shouldn't be tolerated in any situation but baby steps.

I live in an affluent area (so part of the problem in this case) but this is 100% accurate in my area. My son is 8 years old and there are 2! travel baseball teams which cost $2K to join. Not a joke...$2K freaking dollars for 8 year old travel baseball. I grew up differently from where I am now, so I see and know the differences that are discussed in this article. A lot of the people that I know here through my son's school and sports don't probably even realize there is a difference because they grew up here or near here. The rich have always had an advantage, but it has definitely made its way into youth sports even more than when I was a kid.

I am not the least bit surprised by this at all. Saw lots of stuff on Twitter from Sox fans at the game that people they were with were being harassed for wearing a TA jersey and that kids were chanting "Jackie" at TA. KIDS!

Fair point. He has a sense of entitlement that just infuriates me. He is like a kid that has no idea what he says has any effect on anyone else.

I just can’t believe he said that…twice in the game. At that point it isn’t a joke…it’s a taunt and not a good one. I am more impressed with Yaz sticking up for TA and as another poster mentioned I hope that it puts an us against the world mentality back with this team. They need an edge.

That’s insane. And really, really bad.

That 6th is actually T4....but the point still remains that I agree they seem really impatient at the plate. Having Moncada back will jack up the walk rate a little bit, but how in the world did they have so many last year when you watch this team bat? Lets compare walk rates this year vs. last year. I know SSS and if you think it is an anomaly last year it is essentially the same lineup. Player 2022 2021 Grandal 16.7%. 23.2%. HUGE difference Abreu. 8.9%. 9.3%. Same Vaughn. 8.3%. 8.7% Same Moncada. 6.7%. 13.6% Really just entered lineup so a big negative effect Sheets. 6%. 8.9% Decent dip Engel. 5.8% 7.9% Decent dip Robert. 5.3% 4.7% Somehow better? Still not good Burger. 5.2% 9.5% Pretty big dip Eloy 5.1% 6.9% Decent dip Pollock. 4.5% 7.1%. Pretty big dip TA 2.7% 2.7% Amazingly exactly the same Leury 2.6% 8.6% HUGE difference (he has noticeably been waaaaay super aggressive compared to last year - he is definitely part of the anomaly from last year) Harrison 1.6% 5.6% He is just bad so..... So looking at this: 1. Some guys (Abreu, Vaughn, TA, Robert - somehow has better rate) are at the same, while others have fallen off a cliff with walks (Grandal, Pollock, Leury/Harrison - group them together) or we have not received many yet due to injury (Moncada). 2. With Moncada back (he had some good swings last night) and in the 2 hole, they should get more walks. 3. If Grandal starts hitting, he will also get more walks....right now he is being pitched to because he isn't doing anything with the baseball. 4. Some of the main cogs are at the same rate as last year and I don't mind some aggressiveness (TA, Robert) but with lesser players (Sheets, Pollock, Leury/Harrison) I feel like they need to take a different approach especially being at the bottom of the order. Their job should be to try and get on base in any fashion and spoil off pitches. Leury did this last year and it was actually the one thing he was good at. Pollock has decent walk rates in the past and Sheets should also be able to do this. Summary: Moncada will up our walk rate being back and we need Grandal to snap out of it not only to drive in more runs but just be on base. These 2 alone will probably get you back to middle of the pack. If you can get the bottom of the lineup to see 30-40 more pitches a game that effects how long the SP can last and they will definitely draw more walks. It almost feels like everyone in the lineup thinks they need a hit to get out of this team slump when really a more patient approach will probably do the trick because they will see some worse pitchers in the 5th and 6th than the SP. Also....start hitting the ball in the air. I 100% agree with everyone that they hit WAAAAAY too many groundballs....but that was even an issue last year. Is that a Menechino thing with just trying to make contact and strikeout less? But they seem to hit an inordinate amount of groundballs.

Yeah that is definitely one thing I miss with going all streaming. I did find out today that my AppleTV (the actual device) allows me to do PIP so I was able to put Apple+ baseball and the basketball/hockey and switch between them. That was nice. I will have to explore my AppleTV more to see all the capabilities with that. There is also a multicast option but for some reason I could only get that with ESPN channels. That could be good come CFB season.

My thoughts exactly

I think splitting more catching duties with McGuire has helped. And his knee is probably better as well.

They also had 11 balls over 100 MPH. They were hitting him hard regardless of rain.

Both ugly numbers...LOL. At first I was like wtf....but Vaughn against that slider could be ugly. On the other hand he needs to learn and he might only last 3-4 innings given it being his 1st start. I also agree that having Grandal catch less this year (and more DH) is a good idea. It just sucks we have 5 DHs on our team.

Yeah I was surprised Leury hitting above Vaughn...especially against a lefty. That made no sense to me. While playing together Leury and Harrison should be 8/9....even though that is still back to back.

Lou Bob!

I haven't seen Rodriguez pitch much, but he seems to need to nibble a lot. Very Keuchel-esque out there. If he isn't hitting his spots he won't last long from either walks or getting hammered.

Basically a hip check.